This application is the national phase of international application PCT/JP97/00125 filed Jan. 22, 1997 which designated the U.S.
The present invention relates to an information providing system and method using the Internet or the like, a terminal used in the information providing system, and a program-recording medium. The present invention is related to the below six Japanese patent applications. For those designated countries that permit incorporation of publications by reference, the contents of these six Japanese patent publications are incorporated herein by reference, as a part of the description of the present patent application.
1. Application Ser. No. 8-9521 filed on Jan. 23, 1996.
2. Application Ser. No. 8-41104 filed on Feb. 28, 1996.
3. Application Ser. No. 8-67278 filed on Feb. 28, 1996.
4. Application Ser. No. 8-139689 filed on May 10, 1996.
5. Application Ser. No. 8-139690 filed on May 10, 1996.
6. Application Ser. No. 8-163679 filed on Jun. 5, 1996.
This application is related to:
Application Ser. No. 09/125,833 filed Feb. 26, 1997, entitled xe2x80x9cCommunication System Capable of Providing User with Picture Meeting Characteristics of User and Terminal Equipment and Information Providing Device Used for the Same,xe2x80x9d now U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,946, issued Dec. 5, 2000.
Application Ser. No. 09/633,407 filed Aug. 7, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cAdvertising Supported Internet Access Service.xe2x80x9d
Application Ser. No. 09/125,894 filed Aug. 27, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cCommunication System for Distributing Such Message as Advertisement to User of Terminal Equipment.xe2x80x9d
Application Ser. No. 09/206,385 filed Dec. 7, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cInformation Provider, Terminal And System And Recording Medium For The Terminal.xe2x80x9d
Application Ser. No. 09/188,571 filed Nov. 10, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cMessage Searching System and Terminal.xe2x80x9d
Application Ser. No. 09/276,708 filed Mar. 26, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cTerminal Which Stores Information on Communication Network in Local Memory Automatically.xe2x80x9d
The Internet and other computer networks provide various kinds of information to users. In such kinds of information providing systems, a personal computer (terminal) of the user is normally connected to a host computer of an Internet provider or other network provider through a modem and a public communication network, such as a telephone network and ISDN. When a user accesses the information provider via the terminal, requested information is provided either from the Internet or the computer network or from the information provider. The information provided to the user""s terminal is displayed on the terminal display. The user can watch the displayed information (image), scroll the image or switch to a sub-menu by controlling the image.
The image provided from the information provider to the terminal is conventionally displayed in a single display area of the terminal. Newer terminals can display multiple images, such as an image provided from the information provider and terminal file information, to different windows. When the information provider provides images designated by the terminals, passive images such as advertisements are sometimes also provided. Since the images provided to the terminals are conventionally displayed in a single display area (for example, a single window), the passive images are conventionally inserted in the designated images and displayed in the same display area.
When the passive image is inserted in the same display area and the user updates the images in the terminal display by scrolling the screen or clicking a button in the image, the passive image may disappear. Moreover, the passive image may be hidden behind a display of the file information or the other information when the user displays the file information or other information on the terminal. Therefore, with the conventional systems, the display is operated in such a manner that the user does not always see the passive images, such as advertisements. Thus the passive images are not effectively transmitted to the users.
In addition, the passive images are conventionally transmitted to the terminal users randomly. As a result, the passive images could be provided to users who do not want the images or who would not make any response to the passive image. On the World Wide Web (WWW) of the Internet, only the information selected by the user is provided to the user. In other words, information on the WWW is passively transmitted to the user based on the request from the user, and it was not possible for providers, which manage information providing systems, or other host computers to actively provide information to users.
In light of the background described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information display system and an information provider which accurately and effectively select and provide passive images, such as advertisements, while also providing the images requested by the user. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an information provider, through which providers on the World Wide Web (WWW) or other host computers can actively provide information while a terminal connected to the information provider selectively receives the passive image.
To achieve these objects, the present information display system has an information provider, a communication line connected to the information provider, a display, and a display controller which receives an active image (specified image) and a passive image (passive image) from the information provider through the communication line. The information display system displays the active image and the passive image in separate areas of the display.
According to the invention, upon a request from the terminal to the information provider for transmitting active images, the specific active images and passive images are sent to the terminal from the information provider. The active images and the passive images received by the terminal are separately and independently displayed in different display areas of the terminal by the display controller.
Therefore, the active images that the terminal user requests are independently displayed in the corresponding display areas on the display of the terminal. Moreover, because the passive images, such as advertisements, are separately displayed in a display area other than that in which the active images are displayed, the passive images are independently displayed in the display area even if the active images requested by the user are changed in the active image display area.
As a result, the passive images, which have not been intentionally requested by a user (passive images) such as advertisements, are effectively provided while the images intentionally requested by a user (active images) are also provided to the user. The passive image or the window of the passive image is displayed in the front of the display area. In addition, the whole passive image is displayed within the display area. As a result passive images such as advertisements, can be effectively transmitted to the user and the user is effectively made aware of them. In addition, such display control can be accomplished through functions of the OS (operating system), such as Windows95(trademark) of Microsoft Corporation(trademark).
By the operation of the user or of a program installed in the terminal, the passive images may be hidden behind other images or may appear outside the display area, independent of the control of the display controller. The information display system has a detector, which detects whether or not the passive image is in the normal position. The normal position is where the whole passive image is displayed in the front of the display area. When the detector detects the passive image not in the normal position, the notifier provides notice of this.
The information display system may further detect the passive image to be not in a normal position where the passive image is hidden behind other images or has been moved outside the display. In either of these cases, the notifier notifies the user and the user is forced to change the display status (position) of the passive image to normal. The notifier may display the notice on the display.
The present invention also has a display delayer which delays updating the active images when the detector detects that the display status is not normal after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since notification. Further, the updating of the active images is suspended when the detector detects an abnormal status after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the update was delayed. The communication between the information provider and the terminal may be disconnected when the detector detects the abnormal condition after a predetermined period of time since the update was suspended.
Therefore, when the passive images are not brought back to normal status during a predetermined period of time after the notice is given, the update of the active images requested by the user is delayed by the display delayer, which makes it difficult for the user to browse active images. Further, if the passive image has still not been returned to a normal status during a predetermined time after the delay begins, the active images are suspended and the user can no longer browse new active images. Finally, if the passive images are not brought back to normal status during a further predetermined period of time, the communication between the information provider and the terminal is terminated. In this case, the user cannot obtain the requested images at all. Thus, according to the present invention, when the passive images are not in the normal status, the user receives a series of warnings that he or she has to change the status to normal.
The present invention may comprise a detector which detects whether the passive image is in a normal status where the whole passive image is displayed in the front of the display area, and a display delayer which delays the updates of the active images when it detects that the passive image is not in a normal status. The active images update is delayed by delaying the normal transmission of the active images from the display information provider to the terminal. Such a delay of the transmission is accomplished by transmitting error information to the terminal from the information provider.
The error may be sent at a certain rate within responses to the transmission requests received from the terminal. The active images can be updated. The information display system detects whether the passive image is in a normal status where the whole image is displayed in the front of the display, and suspends updating the active images when the passive image is not in a normal status. The information display system may detect whether the passive image is in a normal status where the whole passive image is displayed in front, and terminate the communication between the information provider and the terminal when the image is not in the normal status.
The display suspender suspends updating the active images by suspending the transmission of the active images from the information provider to the terminal. Such transmission suspension is accomplished by transmitting error information to the terminal from the information provider in response to a request for the transmission from the terminal. The present invention further cancels the delay or the suspension of the active images when the display of the passive images becomes normal within the predetermined period of time of the delay or the suspension.
In addition, in the present invention, if the terminal comprises a display memory which stores the displayed contents of the display, the detector determines whether the passive images are in the normal status by determining whether the contents of the display memory in the display area of the passive images match the passive images transmitted from the information provider. From this, an accurate determination is made whether the passive images are in the normal status.
The information provider may have an image database which stores the passive images and the display condition of each passive image. Each passive image is transmitted to the terminal according to the display condition of the passive image. As a result, each passive image is provided to the user terminal with the requested display condition. The display condition of each passive image stored in the image database may include user information, which indicates users to whom each passive image should be displayed. The information provider transmits the passive image appropriate to the user based on user information stored in a user database and image database.
While the requested images are provided to the user as described above, the passive images corresponding to the user""s age, sex, etc. can be effectively provided. The user information may include the age, sex, marital status, occupation, and address of the user.
The display condition of each passive image in the image database includes an individual display limit for each user. The information provider counts the transmissions of each passive image to each terminal and prevents the transmission of the passive image to the terminal when the transmission count reaches the individual display limit for the terminal. Therefore, each passive image is provided to the user a certain number of times less than the display limit, avoiding the situation where the same passive image is provided many times. By setting the display limit to a fixed number of display times within a predetermined period, the same passive image is not provided to the user many times in any predetermined period.
The display condition of each passive image in the image database includes a display transmission time of each passive image. The information provider transmits the passive image at the display transmission time. Thus, each passive image can be provided to the terminal user by transmitting it to the terminal at the requested display transmission time. Therefore, according to the present invention, the passive images (passive image), such as advertisements, can be effectively recognized by and provided to the user while the requested images (active images) are also provided to the users. Meanwhile, the passive images corresponding to the age and sex classifications of the user can be effectively provided.
In another aspect of the invention, an information provider transmits a plurality of types of images to a terminal with a display, using a communication line to which the terminal can be connected. The information provider comprises means for receiving a request from the terminal for an active image actively designated by the user of the terminal, means for selecting the active image designated by the user from among the plurality of types of information based on the user""s request, means for selecting a passive image to be displayed on the terminal regardless of the presence of active designation by the user from among the plurality of types of information, and means for transmitting both the active image and the passive image to the terminal to have these images displayed on the terminal.
In still another aspect of the invention, a recording medium is provided, which stores a program for operating a terminal having a display and a means for connecting the terminal to a communication line. The program acting on the terminal comprises means for causing the terminal to connect to an information provider that can transmit a plurality of images, means for causing the terminal to transmit a request for an image actively designated by the user (referred to as an active image) to the information provider, means for causing the terminal to receive the active image selected, based on the request, from among the plurality of images from the information provider, means for causing the terminal to receive an image to be displayed on the terminal regardless of the active designation by the terminal user (referred to as an passive image), and means for having both the active and passive images be received from the information provider and displayed on the terminal.
In still another aspect of the invention, a terminal having a display and a means for connecting the terminal through a communication line to an information provider that can transmit a plurality of images are provided. The terminal comprises means for transmitting a request for an image actively designated by the user of the terminal to the information provider, means for receiving the active image selected, based on the request, from among the plurality of images from the information provider, means for receiving an image to be displayed regardless of the presence of active designation by the user from the information provider, and means for displaying both the active and passive images.